Hold your animals back to maintain the same pace (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
keep step
'hold your animals back' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'maintain the same pace' is the wordplay.
'maintain' becomes 'keep' (synonyms).
'the same pace' becomes 'step' (synonyms. I am not sure about the 'same' bit.).
'keep'+'step'='KEEP STEP'
'to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for keep step that I've seen before include "maintain conformity" , "conform" .)